OK. Just completed my investigation. The situation isn't at all pretty.
I created a sample file, OpenType Variable TrueType Word.docx that access each of the 15 settings of the Bahnschrift font.
In case you or others reading this thread are not aware of this, the Bahnschrift font is a single OpenType Variable TrueType font that has two axis, one for character width with presets at condensed, semicondensed, and regular and the other for character boldness with presets for light, semilight, regular, semibold, and bold. Although a single font, Microsoft Word makes it appear to be multiple fonts. OpenType Variable fonts is a relatively new technology that is not fully supported yet in Windows or Office. There are two flavors of OpenType Variable fonts - OpenType Variable TrueType based on OpenType TrueType technology (based on OpenType TrueType technology using (quadratic curve outlines) and OpenType Variable CFF based on OpenType CFF technology (Bezier curve outlines from the Type 1 font technology). Although Word (and probably other latest versions of Microsoft Office) support the OpenType Variable TrueType flavor, it does not (yet) support the OpenType Variable CFF flavor and in my experience actually crashes Word (and possibly the underlying Windows font system requiring a system reboot) if you try to use those fonts.
I limited my tests to using the Bahnschrift font to limit the variables so to speak.
I created PDF via Acrobat's PDFMaker yielding the attached file OpenType Variable TrueType Word - Windows AdobePDF.pdf. This yields exactly the same results as you described. Thus you and I are getting consistent results.
I then created PDF via Word's built-in “save as PDF” yielding the attached file OpenType Variable TrueType Word - Windows Microsoft PDF.pdf. This yields pretty much the same results as created by Acrobat's PDFMaker!
My next attempt was to create PDF by printing to the Acrobat's Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance yielding the attached file OpenType Variable TrueType Word - Windows AdobePDF.pdf. This also yields pretty much the same results as created by Acrobat's PDFMaker!
Finally I tried creating PDF by printing to the (awful) Microsoft Print to PDF printer driver instance yielding the attached file OpenType Variable TrueType Word - Windows Microsoft Print to PDF.pdf. This is the only method that seems to yield output that resembles what you see in Word itself.
OK. What's going on.
Acrobat PDFMaker and Microsoft Save as PDF (built into Word) use exactly the same underpinnings to pass content onto the respective PDF creation process and as such, I am not surprised by the fact that the results are similarly wrong with both of these PDF creation methods. Apparently, Microsoft's Office Development group has not yet “hooked up” this output mechanism to know anything about OpenType Variable fonts. And thus, we get these very wrong results.
The Acrobat Adobe PDF printing method to create PDF relies on Word creating GDI which the standard Microsoft-provided Windows PostScript driver converts to PostScript and Acrobat Distiller converts to PDF. Clearly, Microsoft has not updated the driver to know anything about OpenType Variable fonts. If you print to any real PostScript printer that uses the standard Windows Type 3 printer driver PSCRIPT5.DLL, you will get the same wrong results. There is nothing that Adobe by itself can do to fix this.
The Microsoft Print to PDF method relies on Word creating GDI which converted internally to XPS which the Microsoft Print to PDF type 4 printer driver converts to PDF. Apparently, Microsoft has put at least some cognizance of OpenType Variable TrueType technology into that driver (with some issues of course).
What's the bottom line here?
(1) There is no simple fix that Adobe or even Microsoft can provide here. Both Acrobat PDFMaker and the Microsoft Save as PDF mechanisms rely on Office code that needs to be updated before either Acrobat PDFMaker or Microsoft Save as PDF can be updated if necessary. We will try to get Microsoft onto this problem ASAP along with support for OpenType Variable CFF fonts.
(2) There is no fix that Adobe can provide for the Acrobat Adobe PDF printing method (or even printing to PostScript printers). We will relay this information to Microsoft in hopes for whatever fixes are necessary here.
(3) Neither (1) or (2) are “quickie fixes” that you can count on quick turnaround for. It will require significant Office updates (and those will probably only be for Office 2019 and Office 365) and Windows 10 updates. If I was a betting person (which I am not), I would say that such updates will take a year or more to come together and get released.
(4) As an aside, be aware that the ISO PDF specification doesn't directly support OpenType Variable fonts of either flavor. Creation of PDF from content using these fonts involves creating “instances” of the base font that mimick to various design axis of the fonts. That is a challenge also!
(5) I love the OpenType Variable technology. I have bunches of sample and “concept” fonts in both flavours of OpenType Variable font technology. With some slight got'chas, Adobe's graphic art applications (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) allow amazing things to be done with even the initial OpenType Variable fonts. These applications don't depend on underlying Windows (or MacOS) font management and rendering capabilities.
(6) All things considered, with rare exceptions, I would recommend that OpenType Variable fonts not be used for general text layout until many of these issues get resolved, especially with non-typographically-sophisticated applications.
I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but I have layed out exactly what the situation and status is. Hopefully you can live with this for the time being. I am in the middle of quite a bit of work to pull together the companies and people required to get all this fixed and usable by mere mortals! 😉
- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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